


The Prince in the High Castle

by AngelTennant



Series: Travelers in Dimensions [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Body Modification, Chipped Catra, Multi, Possession, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24445138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelTennant/pseuds/AngelTennant
Summary: When Entrapta and Hordak disappear after announcing they are researching portals, the Best Friend Squad goes to Dryl to check on them. But nothing ever happens the way they plan, and Adora ends up in a different dimension that is much more darker than her own.Various First-person POV, signalled by [POV ***] when it changes.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Travelers in Dimensions [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765492
Comments: 16
Kudos: 49





	1. Prologue [POV Catra]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Think you’ve seen it all? Think again. Outside those doors, we might see anything. We could find new worlds, terrifying monsters, impossible things. And if you come with me… nothing will ever be the same again!” The Doctor, Doctor Who

Adora looks at me and smiles. It is a beautiful spring, the sun is upon us, its blinding light through the half-shut curtain drawing a line of the bed sheets. She always wakes up before me, but sometimes I manage to take a glimpse at her gorgeous figure before I drop asleep again, and she always take one last look at me, stays for a second, smile, and then shuts the door in the quietest way.

Sometimes I catch her and force her to stay.

“Mmmh” I mumbles under the pillows. “Why do you have to get up so early all the time?”

I extract myself from under there and she laughs at my ruffled sleepy face.

“Have you seen the sun? It’s a wonderful day, and we have to get ready if we want to be on time at Perfuma’s.”

Ha. Right. The pic-nic. I still cannot figure out the pleasure one can take from a lunch outside in the middle of bees and pollen when people have invented dining rooms. I wipe out the night from my face and stretch.

We still live at Bright Moon, although Adora and I have our own place now. I do not think we will go back in the Fright Zone in a long time. It is Scorpia’s kingdom now; former Horror Hall has been set capital of Spiniferi Kingdom and renamed Centralia. It has been at the core of a lot of political turmoil, but steam eventually set after several interventions of the Alliance joined with plans of inclusion with the White Haven, a refuge for clones on the other side of Dryl. Some former Horde soldiers emigrated in the Crimson Waste, which was blooming under Huntara’s fist rule. The region was supposed to be part of Scorpia’s kingdom, but she gladly gave independence to this piece of mess the very day of her coronation as Queen, just after doing this most ridiculous thing of naming me Prince Catra, “Lord Protector of all unclaimed places and independent people of Etheria, to always stand by their will of freedom and singularity” (who was the adviser who had written this stuff for her?). She even used my old headpiece as a crown. I still used the title to tease Adora around. [1]

All was well and we had to prepare a meal for the pic-nic.[2]

* * *

We talk to Entrapta a little during the picnic. It is difficult to have her focus on a subject, and to be fair Hordak’s constant presence does not make it easier for us, but I try to be polite – and I am somehow curious of what she is up to now.

“I still want to do this research on the portals you know” she says as it comes through conversation. “We don’t know everything about it, and it’s amazing!”

“Wouldn’t it be… a little _dangerous_?” I whisper, hoping Glimmer does not hear this.

“As long as there’s no pissed-off cat to trigger the wrong button at the wrong time, it has no more risk than a trip on your motorbike” Hordak replies.

I look at him angrily. Now how dare he speak to me like that? To hit where it hurts? But Adora nudges my ribs and I manage to contain my annoyance.

“The tech we used isn’t powerful enough to travel through space.” he adds. “But we could use it to travel parallel universes. They’re closer, almost next to us, in a way.”

Parallel universes? Like… alternate realities? Given how the last one ended, I am not a big fan of this idea, and Adora neither.

“Shouldn’t you work on a better tech to travel through space? Like… basic, _safe_ , concrete spaceships?”

“We do” Hordak retorts with a smirk. “But it’s so… primitive. There is a refinery in portals that I would not expect you to understand, but maybe I’ll give you a chance to see it one day.”

Now he just pisses me off. Let him keep his tech if it’s too clever for our “primitive” brain then.

“Fine” Adora grunts. “But if it there is the slightest risk for Etheria, I will put a stop on this, immediately.”

Hordak does not answer.

Entrapta, Wrongie and him are among the first guests to clear off. As soon as they are gone, I let the steam out:

“My stars!” I scream. “He’s such a… _Oh, I’m so much cleverer than you, you understand nothing, you little animal…_ Aaaaaah, I hate him!”

Glimmer laughs. I like this about her: I feel less accountable for my rants with someone who is as hot-tempered as I do.

* * *

A few months later, as we are dining with Glimmer and Bow in Brightmoon, we receive an emergency message from Dryl through the collective phone canal. It’s an unknown voice, probably one of the New Government members. They sound very stressed.

“Dryl Republic to the Alliance. I repeat, Dryl Republic to the Alliance. We need help from the princesses.” the voice says.[3]

“Princess Adora on speaker. What’s the matter?” she answers.

“Lord Hordak and Princess Entrapta disappeared. And there left something very weird in the princess’ office. We really need you to come and take a look at it.”

  
Adora looks at the three of us. I know that look.

“We are coming right now.” she says, and then hangs up.

* * *

“You are not really considering walking out there to look for these two loonies, are you?” Glimmer yells as we check out the lab again.

  
We arrived at Dryl only a couple of hours after the call. The administrator who welcomed us looked terrified, and left us at the door of one of Entrapta’s numerous labs. It was quite dark; apparently, all electricity was down, and we know that when this happens and our tech master is spoken about, it is never a good sign.

In the middle of the room stands what I can only describe as a pure hole. Usually, a hole is not a thing, it’s rather the _lack_ of something into something else. Here, however, it was just a hole, by itself, alone, surrounded by a variety of buzzing machines that were surely maintaining it alive.

I know this thing, the tech surrounding it. Of course, I cannot grasp at the deep science, but I guess immediately, from Entrapta’s speech at the picnic and the chill this thing sends down my spine, what type of mess this is. As Adora looks at me, I know she knows as well.

“What the…” swore Glimmer. “What have they done again?”

“Do you think they’ve crossed?” I whisper to Adora.

“I don’t know” she replies. She looks concerned, and has changed into She-Ra from the potential danger. It is always a little strange to see her like this, and at the same time extremely arousing.

“But what is this thing?” Bow asks.

“It’s a portal” I reply. “Yeah, that type of portal” I add when I see their faces, remembering that as far as they are concerned, they have never seen one. “Though it is much more… stable, apparently.”

Indeed, apart a slight pulsating glow, the thing was just standing there, calling for us to take a closer look, for as Entrapta would say, it is fascinating. Adora is thinking the same thing.

This is when Glimmer says it.

She makes it sound like a joke, but as Adora approaches the anomaly, Glimmer puts her hand on her wrist and her voice cracks.

“Adora! Let’s be careful! This thing can be dangerous!”

It is one of the first times I see Glimmer being actually cautious; usually she is as bold as the two of us… then it hits me: this thing already took her more than she could count.

“I know Glimmer” Adora replies. “But if they are on the other side and in trouble, I have to…”

“My, we talked about this already!” Bow yells, and I cannot help but fully agree with him; I am actually even glad it takes someone else than me to say it for once. “You don’t have to risk yourself all the time!”

“Yeah, and they choose this; they were aware of the risks.” I add. “They made their choice, so let’s just…”

But before I can add anything else to convince her, a huge ray of light gashes out from the hole. Adora screams and reaches at me. It takes less than the blink of an eye for me to react, and I run to grab her hand… and my fingers close over thin air, as the spring of energy closes.

“NO!” I scream.

I fall on my knees. Now in front of me there is only the dull walls of Entrapta’s lab drawn by the dim light of a few electric engines, and she is gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] See “No Harm” and “Leo” for Scorpia’s coronation and Catra’s raising as Prince, I am lazy and don’t want to write it again even though it’s not the same reality :-p 
> 
> [2] See "The Picnic at the end of the Universe" one-shot. 
> 
> [3] Dryl became a republic after a post-war revolution (see "No Harm" and "O Brave New World" for both versions of this event).


	2. The Depths of Dryl [POV Adora]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them." George Orwell, 1984

I fall over the floor of a place very similar to the one I have left, though completely lit. It is empty; Catra, Glimmer and Bow have disappeared. I am a little dizzy but manage to rise on my feet. I try hard not to panic, and remember what Hordak said about portals last time I have seen him.  
An alternate reality. This is surely what is happening. And for sure, alternate reality means alternate Etheria, means alternate Entrapta and Hordak, means they will be able to set another portal and bring me back. Plus there is always original Entrapta and Hordak, who must have come here since they did the same thing as me. Allegedly. Four brains are surely enough to find a solution to all this, right?

I hear footsteps in the corridor. I guess it is Entrapta. It is her place after all. She will understand the problem and find a way to fix it, and I will be home before dinner, hold Catra against my heart and hear about the scare I gave her for maybe the rest of my life.

A white face. Green eyes. Wrongie. Great, I will tell him and he will bring me my favourite purple girl. Everything is going to be fine.

He raises his arm. There is this split second of hope, and then he speaks and I know that things are going to be a little bit more complicated than that.

“Intruder detected. Shoot fire.”

  
He shoots a laser at me. This is not Wrongie. It is a clone, one of the few who remained convinced of Horde Prime’s divinity. I hold my sword and run at him, when he says another thing, that leaves me so surprised I hesitate before hitting.

“Individual sporting the attributes of the She-Ra. We must capture according to instructions, without harming. Need more back-up.”

And as if they were teleported out from nowhere (and they were, as I learnt later), a dozen others come at me. I try to fight and resist, but for some unknown reason, I cannot dig into She-Ra’s energy like I usually do. It is as if my She-Ra was fading away slowly, and I cannot do anything to help it… I have no time to think about it though: there are more and more of them at me, it becomes harder and harder to move, and before I know, I am surrounded, and grabbed, and shackled, and tied, and at their mercy.

“Intruder secured. Bringing to Dryl containment facility, now.”

Then I hear another voice, that I have known all my life and would recognise among a thousand others, though it is slightly deeper and much colder and not unlike the last time such a thing happened to me. A brisk and a little cracked voice that whiskers in the communication device of the clone:

“Wait. Please bring her to me. I am eager to meet her.”

“Yes, my Lord,” sheepishly replies the clone.

“Fine. Upsilon Gamma Tau, set the teleporter to Dryl” the voice adds, before turning the communication off.

She-Ra disappears, and all of a sudden,I am exhausted, as if I had run a whole marathon, when all I did was fight a few clones… what is happening? I do not remember being so weak before. Why… They drag me in an endless corridor. I try to resist, but all my strength is just leaking away… I cannot stand properly.

And then I see her and fall down on my knees.

* * *

I used to believe the nightmare was over. It took so long for us to convince ourselves of this, and we are still overcoming it, and now it is back in front of me. Although it is not Horde Prime, but someone I knew all my life, someone I love and may never see again.

Catra.

She has changed, oh yes, she did. Or should I say he. I do not know what they did to my lover, what _he_ did, but when they rise from the throne, they are almost as tall as the other clones, and stronger, with broad shoulders covered by the white hood. On these muscular arms I see multiple scratches, some long and thin, some round and undefined, and it all looks weird, I do not know why. Yet this is the same clawed hands, though a little paler than the last time I have seen them, with a strange-looking texture, and the same voice, all covered in this nightmare of an outfit. My heartbeat is ringing in my ears. I am so scared to see this face.

They remove the hood, and reveals what I was hoping to be wrong.

The haircut is completely Horde-like, with shaved sides and the top combed to the back, dyed in a grey-white shade. The freckles are almost gone, buried under dark rings around the eyes, and what eyes… half-closed and of glowing white. Behind the neck I catch a glimpse at ametallic reflection. A chip, though much bigger than the other one if I believe the light it shot in my eyes.

“Hi Adora. I heard a lot about you…” He points his hand at his head. “In here.”

“Catra?” I cannot help but say it with a panicked tone.

“No.” And they laugh. “Or maybe.”

Now I do not understand. Even chipped and controlled and with Horde Prime speaking through her mouth, Catra was still presenting as herself. And still remembered me.

Our Horde Prime said he would use her body as a vessel. So what? There must be an Adora here still, and I know myself well enough to think she would not have left Prime conquer Etheria doing nothing. So why does this Catrapretend we never met before? Is there still a little of my Catra inside this… thing?

“Are you Horde Prime?” I say.

The creature grunts.

“Oh, not far… but no, my dear father is not here. I am in charge now.”

He sits on the throne, but unlike Prime, it is not regal or graceful, but all relaxed, with a leg on the armchair and an arm around the back, like a pirate or a kid. He grabs the top-front part of their trousers and pulls on it, surely to loosen it. It is a little disgusting. In a fraction of a second, I see their tongue get out, and like a snake, licks these once-beloved lips, and shows her feline teeth.It is a quick move, a twitch, but along with the whole situation, it is terrifying.

“You don’t seem to have a clue” he sniggers. “You must have been buried in whatever cave you were hiding in for a very long time. Haven’t your dear rebel friends informed you before you came sneaking in one of my citadels?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I reply. He seems to be delighted with this conversation, but honestly, to see my lover in such a state makes me want to puke.

“Well, nevermind” he states without really paying attention to my words. “I’ll update you.”

He takes a deep breath. One of the clones hands him a cup of a bubbly yellow liquid.

“My name is Prince Zed. I am Horde Prime’s son, although this is not my original body. I have lost mine in a battle, sadly… I was so beautiful back then. My father… my beloved father was able to retrieve my conscience and store it. Of course, at first he wanted to put me in one of his clones, but after he captured this… this Catra, he thought its would be such a nice gift… Of course, I had to make a few minor changes to make it up to my tastes, but still. So sharp, so strong and yet so pretty and flexible… Oh, I love it!”

Now he is weird. A son? And who the hell would Horde Prime have a child with? Moreover, a crazy son, given how he is twisting the fingers and the claws as if it were a toy, laughing so manically he begins to cough and choke from his own saliva. It is _really_ disgusting.

A clone comes around in a worried pace, catches a tube behind his neck and plugs it to the chip while another holds the prince to help him recover. He looks at me in anger.

“Get her out!” he yells, and I am taken by an armada of clones. “Now! Put her in prison with the other one!”

He seemed eager to see me, but it did not last long, apparently.

I try to resist but again there are so many and She-Ra is not responding. They drag me through the corridor and I still can hear him choking from a distance. I am stunned but through my haziness emerges a small idea: there is something flawed in here, and if I could understand what it is, maybe I would have the key to all this.

* * *

The door closes behind me before I can stand back on my knees. It is a little darker here, and the walls have not been redecorated at all here, for I can see the shape of a scratched Dryl symbol on one of the walls. There is no furniture, just the dark purple metallic walls and a small figure curled up in a ball in the corner of the room. As times passes, my eyes get used to the light. I also feel a little better than before, though She-Ra is still so far away, and I begin to see the shape’s features: a small person, maybe a dude, with round features and pale yellow skin. Their hair is bright red, cut in a bowl, and they sports a small tattoo at the corner of the eye, representing… a heart. They wears a variety of the clones’ outfit, though it is all torn, and all black, with the grey pattern in the back. I recognise it for having seen it multiple times: it is the basic Horde soldier uniform, that is often worn though not mandatory; but they do not look like a Horde soldier, so what is their deal?For what I see, they look terrified, it is a heartbreak to watch. I get closer, but theycurlthemselfup a little more in the corner. This somehow reminds me of my first encounter with… I do not want to think about it right now.

“Hello” I whisper. “Are you a prisoner too?” I try to be calm and nice, but I guess they can hear my voice shake.

They nod.

“My name is Adora” I add.

“Page” they reply softly. “I’ve heard about you.”

“Really?” I whisper with enthusiasm. “But… what happened to you?”

“I don’t know” they reply. The voice sounds young but still quite adult. “I was with Bow when…”

“Bow? You know Bow?”

Horde Prime might be still around in this nightmare of a reality, but if there is a Bow, there is hope. They put their hand over their mouth.

“I am not sure I should have told you about him” they say. “The Horde is probably listening.”

Then they just close up like a clam as quickly as they opened up. I ask a few questions about the situation, desperate to understand what is the deal here, but all I get is repeated rejections, when someone opens the door of the room outside the cell. It is not a clone for I see the dark purple hand, but still a Horde soldier, with a stunning stick in her hand that she runs against the plasma board, probably with a sadistic smile. Then the light turns on, and I see a face I never expected.

“Entrapta? What are you doing here?”

She is not wearing the Horde uniform, but I notice she is a little different from what I remember: she sports a very small scar on her cheek, and her eyes are of a deep grey shade. She is holding the stick with one of her pigtails. I have no time to wonder about it when I see the shape of a guard behind her who takes his helmet off to reveal another familiar face.

“Bow, you are here!”

It comes from behind me. Contrary to Entrapta, Bow has not changed much: he simply looks extremely tired. He sees me, and jumps against the wall, his face bearing an expression I never thought possible between him and me: fear.

“Adora? How… Are you a ghost?”

“What? No, it’s me, idiot!”

“No, not possible… What is this Horde trickery? You are…”

Before he adds anything, he is interrupted by Entrapta, who is still poking the bars with the stick. For some reason, she has not reacted to my presence until now.

“Bow, what is happening?” she whispers. “Weren’t we supposed to rescue only one people? Why are there two voices?”

And then I realise, the poking, the lack of reaction, the eyes: she is _blind_. How did this happen? I have no time to ask because Bow cuts her off to talk directly to me.

“Who are you?” he asks me with anger in his eyes.

“But Bow, it’s me” I say. I feel helpless, unable to explain it. “Please, believe me. I’m Adora, it’s just… I’m not…”

“You cannot be Adora.” he is not only angry, but also sad, I can see it now. “Stop joking with me.”

“Why would I be joking?” I yell-whisper.

“Because you’re dead!”

I am so shocked a few seconds trickle down when the only sound is the buzzing from Entrapta’s scanning at the cell door. The buzzing changes its tune a little, and she yaps from excitement.

“Found it!”

She presses a button and the cell door disappears with a loud “Boom!”. Immediately, we hear the siren of an alarm coming to life.

“Never mind who you are” he says, staring at me. “We will see this later. Now come with us if you want to live!”

And without another word, he runs in the corridor, followed by Entrapta, Page and me. We hear the sound of a few blasters behind us.

“Duck!” He yells. Entrapta executes immediately; Page and I are a little slower. The blast crosses just above our head, and I can hear and smell the burnt metal on the wall. He stands up fast, and shoots an arrow at the origin of the laser. We hear the gasp of someone falling, but have no time to ponder at it: the running continues, as my warrior instincts come back I check regularly if no one else is following us. The alarm keeps crying in our ears.

“Entrapta!” Bow yells. “You know this place better than anyone! Guide us to the quickest exit!”

“I am, I am” she stutters. “We are close. Wait…” She runs her fingers on the wall and her face lights up. “Here!”

She opens a trap. It is a little tight, but the three of us manage to squeeze ourselves in it. Page’s sounds breathless and looks at us in doubt.

“Come on, sib!” Bow says. “We will be home soon!”

They nod, take a deep breath, and gets in. The corridor is very small, completely dark, and it reeks of smoke and ashes. All I can hear is Page’s breathing rapidly, and the never-ending beat of a faraway machine. It seems endless.

After a few minutes, an hour, or days – I would not know which – I hear a metallic screech and a crude light suddenly blinds me. After a few seconds of distracted blinks, I see Bow has opened a trap above our heads.

“It should be safe by now” he whispers. “Come along.”

We walk out. The mountains of Dryl surround us, but there is no sight of the castle itself; the tunnel must be running all the way through Mount Crypto.

“Glimmer is meeting us here. I am surprised things went to well.” Bow says, his chin in his hand as thinking intensively. “Almost as if they were letting us escaped… as if we were followed…” He turns to me and points his finger in accusation. “That’s it! You are a spy!”

“Me?” I scream. “No!”

“Oh, please” he replies. “Stop your comedy, Double Trouble. And how stupid you are to play Adora when everyone knows what happened.”

“I’m not Double Trouble!”

“Then who the hell are you?”

I am stuck. How can I explain to my best friend, and yet now a stranger, who I am? I cannot understand it completely myself.

“I came through a portal.” I try to be as clear and factual as possible but even to me I sound crazy. “It seems you guys and me are from different dimensions, different realities.”

“I thought portals were impossible to create with Etherian technology” he retorts, not very convinced. “At least, that’s what she – his shows Entrapta, who is busy checking on her tool, for it fell on the floor when the guard attacked us – has been telling us.”

Apparently, the Fright Zone incident was something common between both our worlds. I was almost glad, for it provided a shared ground that would make my explanation much more believable.

“Well, apparently, it’s possible, and I’ve crossed through one.” I sigh.

“But why this dimension? Obviously if there are two, they must be several, so why this place?”

“This I don’t know,” I reply “In my world, Entrapta and Hordak are… were missing, so…”

“Wait, Hordak was with Entrapta, and you were worried about him? HOW?”

“Hordak is on our side in my world.”

He looks at me, probably thinking something along the lines of _well, this one is completely mad right now_. I continue:

“…And he is with Entrapta (he pulls a disgusted face), and they were missin; so I arrived in our Dryl with… well, with you, Glimmer, and Catra, and…”

“So Catra is _also_ on your side?”

“Yeah. There is a lot to catch up, I know.” At the name of my lover, I smile dreamingly. “I see” reply other Bow. “And so in this crazy world of yours where the bad guys became somehow good, you arrive at Dryl, and?”

“And then, I just remember seeing the portal. I did not touch it, I was just in front of it and then, next thing I know, I am in the same room, without a portal, but with a very hostile clone who calls for backup and they capture me. And also, I cannot turn into She-Ra any more”.

“Ooookay” Bow says. “I think I’ll need a minute to digest all this information.”

As he says this, we hear the sound of magic, and Glimmer appears. Like Bow, she seems little different than my Glimmer, safe an important detail: she is not wearing the crown. When she sees me, she has the same reaction as Bow.

“What the fuck?” she yells.

“Calm down, Glimmer,” Bow says. “Listen...”

He proceeds to explain the situation, in a much quicker and better way than me. After what I saw with “Catra”, I am relieved these two are close to normal in this world.

“So you are another Adora” she sums up. “Or so you say. This might be bullshit, but we don’t have the time, so we will take you to Bright Moon, and let my mother handle this.” Bow nods. She grabs him, me and Entrapta.

“Well it’s gonna be a little short for the teleportation, but we’ll deal with what we have” she says before Dryl disappears.


	3. The Ashes of the Rebellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (I am very sorry not a lot happens in this chapter but many explanations were needed before we tackle the action).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I don't think you trust  
> In my  
> Self righteous suicide  
> I cry  
> When angels deserve to die..."  
> Chop Suey, System of a Down

“There is nothing indicating she is not telling the truth” King Mycah says after examining me with a truth spell.

I am back in the Whispering Woods, even though these Woods seems as strange to me as when it was the first time I have been in there. The atmosphere is so different, all tension and expectation. People are lurking in the dark, with passwords and weapons to deal with friends and enemies, and all the people I used to know acting like they met me for the first time. We arrive at a camp not unlike ours in the beginning of Horde Prime’s attacks, though this one looks older and more settled. They have been living here for several months, for what I can understand, with a martial organisation that contrasts so much with the Bright Moon usual atmosphere.

And then, there was the matter of Angella and Shadow Weaver.

The latter I sort of expected; she had always been part of my world, and I was still not used to her death. Not that I mourned her, or was happy she was gone. Just… I do not know how to define it, but I was not surprised. Angella, on the other hand… Her death in my world had lead to so many consequences… and yet she was there, and Glimmer and her were family, fighting for the Rebellion and occasionally quarrelling with each other about the best way to do it; and Mycah was smiling whenever he saw them.

In the middle of the gloomy fate of this world, there was something between these three that my reality would never manage. It also meant that in this reality, I was dead, Other Adora was dead hoping she was saving her world, and yet here is was now, still wrecked, still calling for others to sacrifice for its peace.

This death alone explained a lot of things, and at the same time raised other questions left unanswered. With Adora – me – gone, the Heart of Etheria stayed hidden, and is impossible to activate. Then how did Horde Prime get here? For there was no sign of stars, and Despondos was still here.

Also, there was no trace of my Entrapta and Hordak. No one had heard about them.

“We don’t know a lot about him” Bow says when I ask him about Horde Prime. “All I can tell you is that one day, a ship appeared above the Fright Zone, and next thing we know is this army of Hordak wannabees who flush out of it and invade Etheria in a couple of months and they all talk about this guy as their Emperor. We tried to resist, but they are even worse than the usual Horde… They are so terrible that actually, a few ex-members asked to join the Rebellion.”

“And Catra?” I ask eagerly.

“Well, this was the weirdest piece of it all.” He pauses, unsure of my reaction. I sure feel a little pound in my stomach, but I am determined to listen and understand everything about this place. I need the truth and I need it now.

“They call her – or him, I don’t know – Zed now. We rarely see them in direct battle, but they made a few appearances in public, in some villages. They seem to have replaced Hordak, who is off the grid as far as we’re concerned. Entrapta hopes she can find him among the clones, but I personally believe Catra killed him and took his place.”

He was probably right, although the idea makes me shiver.

“We did not pay much attention to it though.” he adds. “Some people were chipped…” he pauses again, eager for my reaction. I simply nod. “I see it happened to you guys as well.”

“Yes.” I simply reply. I hate to speak about it, my throat feels knit and I close my eyes not to let my tears out.

“It’s very hard to know who is on our side and who is not. When they are not clones, we try to get the chip out, but it’s a dangerous and complicated process.”

I nod.

“So we do our best not to get in direct contact with them, and we try to avoid meetings with each other. Apart from very well-known members of the Rebellion, everyone knows only a few others, so that even if they are chipped, they don’t give away too many names.”

He sighs. From the way he delivers this last line, I guess it happened a few times and did a lot of damage.

“Also, this Zed guy… there is no mercy in him. I have heard dreadful tales from the very few witnesses who saw him interact with prisoners and live to tell the tale, but I’m not sure I want to talk about it…”

“Catra’s always been a brat” interrupts Glimmer, “but I guessed there was some good in her, for she was Adora’s friend… your friend,” she corrects.

“It’s not Catra any more” I answer. “In my world, well… I have seen her chipped. Controlled by Prime himself… and it was horrible, but she resisted. She remained herself, in a way. But this… Zed is different. He is not controlled by Prime. He is a consciousness of his own, and he has her all for himself.”

I sigh and yawn. Angella jumps on the occasion to suggest I take a break and rest for the night before we begin anything else. I talk a little more with Mycah, who is very curious about our reality. He wonders how we were able to defeat Horde Prime, but I just cannot answer him; they had lost the little light of hope that glowed in my friends eyes even in the darkest hour, and now that I am back, they are all counting on me again, on She-Ra,after months pulling on the rope and waiting for the next one of them to fall on the battlefield. I just cannot tell them that I have lost her.

“What happened to Entrapta?” is my last question before I go to sleep, as Glimmer and Bow have settled a small mattress in their tent for me.

“We escaped from Beast Island together” Mycah answers. “But the place almost got her. We managed to heal her but… as you can see, it left scars.”

Of course. In this reality, I was not there to go and get her after Scorpia defected. I wonder what happened to her; I will surely have time to talk about it with her tomorrow morning. Entrapta did not seem to mind it so much though, and still handled tech almost perfectly from what I had seen. Still, it hurt. So many of my friends were already wounded from this war, and now this… I was not there for them, and this is what happened.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the Fright Zone._

“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!”

The scream tears through the thick contaminated air.

“I can’t believe they did this again. Don’t you ever learn, you bunch of idiots? Why wasn’t she more heavily guarded?”

“Majesty” says a meek clone voice “You never said…”

“I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO SAY IT FOR YOU TO DO IT!” he yelled. “My! These clones are so useless! No autonomy, no genius! Aaaaaaaahhhh, what a life,” he adds, “Stuck on this primitive planet with my dad’s stupid clones and my uncle’s useless army!”

The sound of broken glass resonates through the corridor. Zed is standing in front of a shattered mirror, alone, as a terrified clone gets out and snaps the door. In every piece, he sees the multiple reflection of the same face of this body he loves and hate at the same time, and that he has no choice but to keep now. The consciousness chip would not stand another transfer, his father said, so his only solution was to stabilise in here before he could safely join the hive mind. He had to beat her, and was running out of time. And now, this She-Ra girl was on the loose… What a nightmare, this Etheria place.

Zed grabs a sharp piece, and presses it in his hand, until a few drops of blood fall on the floor. The pains irradiates like a cold burn, but at least there is something to focus on. A sigh of relief gets out of his mouth. He looks in the mirror, and the mirror says:

“ _Told ya Etheria was a pain in the ass.”_

“Shut up” he replies. “I don’t remember giving you permission to speak.” She was using it, this moment of doubt. He could not let her creep out like that.

“ _I don’t need your permission”_ she whispers.

“Stop it!” he yells. “SHUT UP!”

The clone has remained outside the door, wondering if he should get in again; but the last scream makes him step back a little.

“ _Why don’t you just drop it”_ she says with a sly voice. _“Haven’t you used too much energy on this? We are not made for each other,_ _so let me go now._ _Go back to sleep, and let me rule the Horde. We both know I’m better at this job._ _”_

“Never.” He opens his hand, and the piece of mirror falls on the floor and breaks again in smaller pieces tainted of red. “I always get what I want, and I want you. This body is mine, you understand? Mine. You’re just a residue, trash that refuses to burn properly. But I’ll deal with you, and it will be like you never existed.”

The other one do not answer, but the idea comes to Zed, like a bubble in his brain, the shadow of a reply he cannot escape.

_Well I wish I never did anyway._


	4. The Battle of the Crystal Castle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying." Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

This Rebellion is in a more pitiful state than I expected. On the bright side, all the princesses are alive, and none of them was chipped, thanks to Angella’s careful guidance that refused to spare any troops on risky operations. Of course, no Heart of Etheria meant no Glimmer trying to activate it, meant no one helped Scorpia bonding with the Black Garnet; but at least she is there, wholesome and lively as ever, and her idyll with Perfuma is a feast for the eyes. Mermista is also pretty equal to herself. The loss of her kingdom did not stop her sarcasm or fearless will to fight. I was shocked when I overheard a discussion between her and Angella that she was actually pregnant – and the Queen was not very happy with the idea, because “this is no place to raise a baby!”. I never expected Sea-Hawk and her to be parent material; but I guess a desperate war makes people take decisions they would put on a wait in normal times, and from what I got from this eavesdropping, the whole thing had not been very planned; but now it was there, with no access to any means to pick another path, so they would have to do with what they had.

Spinerella, Netossa and Frosta also form a delightful little family, and have asked me more than once to play with them to a ball game. I accepted of course. In the middle of such despair, I was somehow happy to see how they all had managed to create a stable environment, at least as stable as they could. Of course, they were still rebels on the lam: Bow and Entrapta were a surprisingly great team, specialised in extraction of rebel prisonners all over Etheria, thanks to Entrapta’s knowledge of Horde technology. Sea-Hawk had even settled a whole resistance network among former pirates who were “working” for the Horde in the day and passing off goods to feed the rebels in the night. Spinerella, Netossa and Glimmer were specialised in setting traps on roads taken by the clones, which never failed to stir a little mayhem in the occupants troops.

Even though they were still undefeated, this version of the Horde was not as well armed, organised and powerful as the one I had faced, and I noticed it as soon as the second day I arrived there. For basing all their strategy on the similarity and over-control of their army had proven on the long term to be flawed in several ways the rebels did not waist time to see. For example, the clones could hardly react to any unexpected, imperfect or (apparently) crazy behaviour or situation. Also, it seemed Zed was not as good at controlling them as his father was, and there were reports of strange clone activity considering Prime’s management as I knew it: they organised parties, often including entertainment with Etherians more or less forced to participate; they had been seen drinking to the point of passing out, performing cruelty on civilians, and once or twice do gruesome things I will not talk about here.

So much for Prime wanting to keep it clean.

I have no clue of what I should do. Deep down in my heart, I want to help them, yet the seeds of happiness that my Catra has planted in my heart scream that this is all unfair. All this was supposed to be over, and for the first time I am tempted to quit, to try and find a way to make it back. I never wanted to be here anyway; I wish I never had to know their existence in the first place… And now I am stuck helping them if I ever want a chance to get back there. For I know it, deep down: helping them is the only way.

I feel like starting back to square one, all my efforts to waste, and She-Ra is gone once again.

I have no time to think further, though, for just after dinner on the second day, as dusk is painting the whole sky in pink, a small elvish creature runs in the camp. Once they give the password, Bow walks to them, military style, followed by a frowning Mycah.

“What is it, Dandelina?” Mycah says.

“It’s… it’s the… the Crystal Castle” she says, panting, “They found it! We are under attack!”

* * *

“ _Thank you for the tip” Zed whispers to himself. Inside, he can feel the cat grumble and swear._

_A few hours before, in the Fright Zone. Another throne,_ _which used to be Hordak’s_ _._ _The back of it is lowered, and another clone is working on his back. As always, small tubes filled with a_ _white-ish_ _substance are plugged in his arms and at the back of his neck. From time to time, he raises a hand, and the clone lifts the tool with which he is painfully drawing on his skin, so that the prince can cough without ruining the motive._

_He knows she has been here before. This body has already been sitting here, with Hordak and the whole armada at her feet. Not for long, but she used to be the dark lord of this place._

_They have more in common than both would admit. What a waste! His uncle had this perfect soldier all this time, and how little did he make of it. Zed will not make the same mistake; he is the perfect weapon, and he was going to use it._

_Finally, the clone lifts his hand, turns of the machine and puts the needle aside. This was painful, but also a delight to hear her rage storming from the cage of their brain._

_Zed rises, and admires himself in the gigantic mirror that has been especially brought for him. He runs the clawed fingers over the shorn skin of his arms, on his stomach, on the scars of his flat breast. She hated it, this bare skin, he knew it. And now he was printing the mark of his devotion and her slavery forever on the back of this body. He turns around, and looks at himself._

“ _Amazing” he whispers. The Horde symbol covers his whole back, sharp black over pale brown from the waist to the shoulders. The wings follow his muscles, looking like they are about to be unleashed as he moves. He can feel her crying inside of him._

“ _I thought you were all about loyalty to the Horde” he says to her. “You should be happy I made this real. By being my host, you are more part of it than you ever dreamt to be.”_

_No answer. She retreated at the very back of his head, but he knows that she has not given up yet. She was strong, he had to give her that; still present after all this time, still fighting him, still withholding information like this “Crystal Castle”. They had been combing the whole planet for months and found next to nothing, though the data they stole for the First Ones fallen empire clearly stated there was something here. But all they got was a couple of useless relics the local called Runestones, and scrap technology just good enough for powering a few machines. Surely there was something to understand here, but it looked like the whole planet had shut itself from him, until a few days ago, when a scout had reported an apparent ruin in the Whispering Woods, with marks of rebel occupation and a distinct First Ones design. He was already intrigued, and when the little cricket in his brain expressed shock and fear, it was confirmed: this Crystal Castle was important, and he was about to understand why._

_H_ _e gets rid of the tubes and stretches; he is tired of staying behind. There is something in this place that deserves him coming at least as much as the mysterious come back of the_ _P_ _rincess of_ _P_ _ower._

* * *

[POV Adora]

“We have to go there” I say to Angella, Mycah and Glimmer. “If they put their hands on the Crystal Castle, it’s over.”

They look at me with puzzled eyes.

“Mum, we shouldn’t let them win again! We have people who live close to the Castle!” Glimmer yells; but her parents remain sceptical.

“This place is important” I add. “This is where She-Ra’s power come from. Where they can access it. If they do, we are doomed.”

I could not afford to explain all of the Heart of Etheria thing, as I did not understand everything myself at the time, and would not know where to start anyway. The less they know, the safer they are, and in all this chaos, we did not need to add the planetary weapon on our plate, not yet.

“This is a great risk. The castle shut itself down when Adora disappeared, and it showed no sign of life since then. And what is in there, anyway?”

“Lots of First Ones tech!” Entrapta interrupts.

“There is an access to the magic of the whole planet” I reply. “It’s a weapon. They can use it to destroy all of Etheria.”

“But why would the First Ones built such a dreadful thing in the first place?” whispers Angella with a scared voice.

“Never mind, mum!” Glimmer yells. “If Adora says we have to protect the place, they we do. Let’s go!”

  
And without waiting for her mother’s answer, Glimmer grabs her sceptre and raises her sceptre in the air.

“Who loves me, follow me!”

And thus Bow is the first one to step behind her.

* * *

When we arrive, a few rebels had already started to fight the Horde bots, and we had no choice but to throw ourselves directly into it without wondering how or why. However fierce the Rebellion was, we were quickly overwhelmed, and every effort I made was useless: I could not reach She-Ra. So I tried my best with my regular fighting skills, but it was not enough. I noticed most of the rebels had mastered the technique of smashing the core to shut out self-repairing; but it was slow, and for every engine destroyed two seemed to take its place. This hydra was immortal, and we did not even face the clone army yet that I could see on my (new?) friends faces that they were preparing to die on the battlefield today.

Suddenly, there is a change in the atmosphere. I see Glimmer draw back her sceptre, almost at the same moment as the bot she is fighting stops and steps back. They all retreat on each side of the battle yard and leave room to a perfectly aligned cohort of identical clones. I did not notice then, but their eyes glow of a slightly different light than the ones of Horde Prime; I did not pay much attention at Dryl, because everything happened so fast, but now I can see it clearly. The difference is small, but their gaze is lighter and bluer and insanely bright.

They stop a few feet away from us. Nothing was said but we all understood that this is a time to talk, and I must cowardly say it was more than fine to have a small truce before going back to the hostilities.

The clones themselves step aside, to leave an open way for a slightly smaller figure that I know quite well. Then again in the small spaces of Dryl I did not take the measure of what was done to her, but in plain sight I cannot escape it. The lean and subtle moves of my cat-like partner disappeared. This body is stiff, moulded as close as possible to every other Horde Prime clone soldier, to the price of extremes measures that make my heart hurt. Did she volunteer for that? Why would they spend so much energy changing her like this when they seem to have so many clones right at hand?

“Hey, Adora” Zed sneers. “Hello, dear Rebels.”

The night has almost completely fallen now, but the small battleship that brought the clones cast an artificial light on this scene of complete drama. So many clones and bots are around us right now, and I feel so small in the middle of them.

“So I was right” he says. “There is something precious in this Crystal place, enough at least for you to fight for it.”

I suddenly suspect we have fallen right into his trap. In a dramatic gesture, he throws the cape to a clone standing by him, and reveals a large, muscular chest covered with scars. I can see again there is something different with the way Catra’s skin reflects the light, and it sends shivers down my spine.

“Well, if you refuse to tell me, I will see it by myself,” he heads towards the door but I instinctively put myself right in front of him. We are extremely close now, and I can smell the breath of this body I longed for so many times, and it smells of iron and chemicals. “Oh, please, spare me the act” he sneers. “Let me pass.”

“No.” I say firmly.

“Come on, Adora. Won’t you let this cute little voice convince you?”

And suddenly, he snaps. The light in his eyes shuts down and come back to the normal, unpaired blue and yellow sight of my loved one. She looks disoriented, and stumbles a little, like someone wearing a suit that is too tight or too large, and her voice, though still a little deeper than it used to, sounds terrified.

“What… what… ah…” she mutters. “Adora?” she coughs “What are you… Adora!”

The last one is almost a cry, and as quickly as it left, the bright white light in her eyes is back, and I am standing again in front of the Horde Prince. My heart is breaking, and I want to close my eyes, to put my hands on my ears, to run away just so it will stop, but I am stuck on the grass with this paralysing gaze upon me as he whispers:

“I can give you more if you let me pass”

“Why her?” I say. “You have a thousand clones at your disposition, why do you do this to her?”

He steps away, and licks his lips.

“Because I can” he simply says. “And also, because of this.”

He raises his hand, and without a word, I am lifted in the sky. I am confused, and just have time to see the ground running away from me and my friends get smaller and smaller until a familiar voice interrupts it and I am stabilised mid-air, like a helicopter, with the terrifying impression that I can fall down anytime.

“Don’t, brother” Hordak says.

He appears from I do not know where, though I guess he was somewhere in the clone ranks this whole time; his looks are somewhere in between the Horde norms and his personal style. From what I can see, Zed is more loose than his father on the fashion rules.

“We have no idea how much she could be valuable. Let’s keep her alive, as well as her princess friends.”

“Fine” Zed grumbles. “Brothers!” he yells. “Capture them. And when it’s done, let’s tear this thing apart.”

And without a second notice, he drops me, and I fall down.


	5. The Darkness in Disguise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think they’re fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself—in time destructive as bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim. This other bacteria, permitted to age, does not kill a man but leaves in its wake the hulk of a creature torn and twisted; there is still fire within his being but it is kept alive by casting upon it faggots of scorn and hate." Truman Capote, In Cold Blood. 
> 
> [Sorry for taking so much time to publish, and yet for a chapter where not a lot happens. I have been mentally ill the last few weeks, and I am only starting to recover]

I wake up in a different place, after what seems like a blink and forever ago. It is cold, and the smell of rotten chemicals and electricity strikes me hard. It has not changed around here; the Fright Zone.

I am nauseous, as much from the smell as from the world spinning around me after being knocked down. I take a few moments to understand that I am in a cell, again. He just loves locking me down I guess, except I am alone this time.

“Guys?”

I hear my own voice being so slow and mushy. One thing is awkward: I am almost naked, not in a sexual way, but I still feel vulnerable and humiliated. They left me with a sort of two-piece white underwear that covers what it needs to cover quite well, but still leaves out my whole arms and legs to full display. It is made of a strong fabric that does not feel natural, although it does not feel uncomfortable either. It is just functional.

The cell is quite spacious, as they always are; I have been provided with a plate of brown bars, which is not too bad, and some water. I do not feel like eating but I drink a little water and it helps me waking up. At that point I also notice thin grey metallic bracelets and collar on my wrists, ankles and neck. After a while, I can ear the buzzing of electronic devices around me.

“Your body constants indicate that you are awake” says suddenly the voice of my enemy behind the plasma door.

I jump out of surprise and instinctively crawl back to the bottom of the cell. He is not actually there, but his face projected in large scale on the door is enough to make me feel like a trapped animal in a cage.

“What happened?” I stutter. “Where are my friends? How did you…”

“Sssshhhh, shhhhh, Adora,” he whispers in a fake reassuring way, “Don’t worry, I will tell you everything face to face very soon. We’ll meet at dinner, my dear. But before that, you will need to get dressed. Someone will come around when it’s time. Until then, I advise you to rest, sweet heart.”

The screen shuts down and I am left wordless. I try to scream a few more times, to ask for my friends, but nothing happens. Then I remember that the Fright Zone cells are all soundproof. I sigh.

After an unknown amount of time, I fall half-asleep again. At some point, the plate has disappeared, but I did not see how or when. What I remember though is the clear vision of a clone entering and holding me very still to sting me with some product. I tried to resist, but I was too slow and weak to do anything.

The artificial light makes it impossible to know what time it is when another clone (or maybe the same one, it is hard to know they look so identical) comes to give me an outfit, and helps me putting it on with mechanical bland gestures. I vaguely think about rejecting it but I am just too numb to say a lot, and it is better than to stay in underwear.

It is a Horde design, and very similar to what I saw on Catra on the day I met her again on Horde Prime’s ship, which itself was an adaptation of the clone basic outfit. There is no hood, though, and it might be a little more loose. The biggest difference is in the colours, which are reversed: the whole piece is dark grey, with a white Horde logo on the back of the cape. The whole thing just feels like a borrowed costume for some mockery parade, then again I just cannot gather the strength to say a thing. It is as if my body had started to move on at its own pace, and I stand there somewhere at the back of my head watching it stand up and follow the clone to the main room, which is basically the former Hordak headquarters.

I have rarely seen the place myself and I am too stunned to notice many details. The light has changed a little: the atmosphere is light and bleak, almost electric. Hordak’s throne stands at the centre, not as high as I expected, with the master of the place at the top, sitting in a childish way and holding a glass of white wine. He licks his lips.

“At last we meet properly” he says.

“Where are… my friends?” I ask. In the middle of my horror-struck limpness this thought somehow managed to make way in my brain.

“Your friends, always your friends!” he exclaims with a disappointed but amused voice. “You can’t let them go for a minute, do you? They’re alive, and all safely locked down. I will bring them around later if you want, but right now, we need to talk.”

“I won’t… talk with you.” whatever they stung me with might be wearing off a little, because I feel at least strong enough to reply. “I have nothing to say to you. What did you do to Catra?” I add.

He knocks gracefully with my beloved claws on the empty glass. The stiff and robotic ways that were his last time seems to have worn off to let room to an elegant aristocrat. Maybe the long tubes that connect him to his seat have something to do with it. A clone draws a gold jug and pours some extra alcohol in the glass; he takes the time to sip a little of it before answering me.

“Now, that is not fair, my dear Adora.” he licks his lips again. I also notice that his outfit is exactly the same as last time I saw it on my Catra. “You would get answers from me and I would not get anything from you?”

“I thought Horde Prime knows all, Horde Prime sees all was your whole thing.” I bitterly reply.

“Oh, you mix me up with my father, I see…” he coughs a little. “But my father is not here. He left me in this dead-end part of the universe to handle this piece of junk of a planet, and I will prove him that I can manage it perfectly well my own way.”

He grumbles something I do not hear. Without a word, the throne is lowered and advanced towards me.

“I need answers, Adora, and so do you.” He rubs his chin hairs with his fingers. “What about we play a game? I ask a question, you answer, then your turn. One at a time, and you know what? I let you start.”

Without a word, he does a sign with his hand, and an iron table rises between us. As we talk, the clones bring food and cutlery, but I am not hungry enough to eat anything.

“What did you do to Catra?” I whelp.

My clever friends might have asked much better questions, but it is the only thing that burns my insides right now. He smiles cruelly.

“I took her body, as I told you last time.” he answers. “I need one to move around, and this one is amazing. It comes from Etheria, so I can access a small part of the planet’s magic, which has proven handful. Of course, I needed to make a few changes in the design, to suit my style. I hope you like it. Come and see for yourself.”

Without knowing it, I rise and walk around the table, and I am suddenly close enough for him to reach my personal space. He strokes my cheek gently and I feel violated but am too dizzy to move yet. His hand looks all puffed and the veins are pouting under the skin; it glides down my arm to take my own hand as he enjoins me to touch his shoulder, thus our faces get closer, with two white holes of light staring back at my soul and sucking it to the bone, and suddenly I snap out of it and step back.

“Why her?” I whisper.

“No” he replies. “It’s my turn to ask the questions now.”

I am on the verge to cry. It is too much, I just want to go back and forget about this mad world.

Somehow, I manage to still stand.

“I just want you to know before I say it” he says, “this question is as much from me as it is from your kitten friend whose memories helped me reconnect the dots and understand who you are.”

He smiles.

“Now, would you do me the pleasure of explaining how the hell did you come back.”

* * *

It is a dead end. He tries to makes me say what I know about the Crystal Castle, but I manage to keep it mostly for myself. My lies seems to work, though I have no idea what use they are. He has my friends locked down, though he ensures me they are all alive; he possesses my lover with all his might; he has me drugged and almost at his feet, what else does he need from me that he does not already have if not the planetary weapon under our feet? We are sitting face to face like a married king and queen taking council of war, except I am his prisoner and he will throw me in prison as carelessly as a rotten flower.

“There is one thing I do not understand” he says. “You want to fight me. I can feel it with your numbers, I can see it in your eyes. I am a strong warrior in a body you love, but it hasn’t stopped you before… and the calming serum must have worn off by now.”

I do not understand what he is talking about. He must be reading my mind, because he answers it immediately.

“You could have turned into She-Ra anytime. At the Crystal Castle, to protect whatever this place contains that you hold so dear, to save your friends from me… and even now, to fight me. See, I did not pick the most hated officer of the local Horde just for the fun of it. I knew there was something between you two since the first time she spoke about you, the best warrior of the Rebellion, so I guessed if there was any way you made it back, the love for your kitty cat would shield me from your blows. Still, I expected you to strike!”

I slowly manage to understand the labyrinth of his words and then realise.

This whole talkative point of his had one goal: waist time and test me. And by using it to retrieve information, I had fallen again into his trap.

“You can’t turn into She-Ra, don’t you?” and in front of my silence, he adds: “You don’t know why. Duh. This makes it easier and harder at the same time.”

I watch panicked his head turn to one of his clones, as he says:

“Keep digging the Castle.”

He looks at me again.

“You thought our little conversation made me forget about that? The First Ones did something to this planet, I know it. The Runestones, the Castle, the Watchtower… This place was important to them, and you know why. After all… You are a First One.”

My lack of reaction makes him raise an eyebrow.

“You knew it already. Interesting. Anyway” he unplugs the tubes at the back of his head, and stretches thoroughly. “I will discover what is so important that you cover it with crack tales. Until then” he smiles again, “let’s have a good night.”

* * *

[Other Catra POV]

_Some months ago, in the Fright Zone._

_I remember sitting alone in Hordak’s lab, long after the rest of the Rebels scattered around. This was all but a half-win: the message surely made it to Horde Prime, but we failed at stabilising it. So now, all there was to do was waiting._

_I cannot tell exactly how we all got out of the portal. I was standing there with Hordak, the Rebels fiercely looking at us, but she is not there, and I just know, as the energy storm around the sword slowly fades off, that she did not make it._

_The blade falls on the floor, and explodes in a million pieces. I curl up instinctively to protect myself from the shatters and the energy._

_When I open my eyes again, most of the rebels have left, except the last one._

_Sparkles._

_She looks at me, and turns away but I know somehow that if Adora is gone, she for sure is not done with me._

_And now I am sitting on the first step under the throne, at Hordak feet, with the sword still in my hands, and I wonder._

  
_Why does she always have to be like this? The one to die to save the world had finally achieved her goal, and I just cannot wrap my head around it._

_You had what you wanted, says the little voice in my head. You won._

_But my heart feels empty._

_She was never going to come back to your side. She abandoned you for this Rebellion. They deserve to be burnt to the ground like you are doing._

_Still there is a sour taste at the back of this victory._


	6. The seed in the broken heart [POV Other Scorpia]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [FIRST OF ALL I am very sorry for not posting for so long, my health issues were much more serious than I believed they were, I had a very rough month, and I was busy with work, moving out of my previous flat, hard depression, some body health issues due to the excessive heat etc. Plus this chapter triggered a lot in my head, because the Scorpia-Catra relationship is awfully similar to the relationship I had with my ex, and it left ugly scars in my heart. I hope I managed to convey this mood in my writing.  
> https://youtu.be/oFrvRiixXcA (to listen to the song that is the origin of this chapter's quote).]
> 
> "I spent all of the love I've saved  
> We were always a losing game  
> Small-town boy in a big arcade  
> I got addicted to a losing game  
> Ooh-oh oh oh , ooh- oh oh oh,  
> All I know, all I know- oh oh  
> loving you is a losing game.  
> (Duncan Laurence, Arcade)

They have locked us up since forever ago when at last a clone arrive to deliver some food. I try to keep positive: yes, we are all prisoners, and it looks like the end, but at least we are together. I for one am lucky enough to have the love of my life by my side, for I can see Perfuma in the cell just in front of me. Bow is next to her; they are the only two I can see from here, though it seems there are other cells in the corridor.

All I can remember is endless armies of clones surrounding us, and we try to defend ourselves, but they manage to isolate me from the others, and when I wake up, I am in a cell and so are the other two. We tried to exchange some signs, but the plasma doors are not transparent enough for us for such a precise thing, so we just glance at each other worried, until the food delivery makes us go back to ourselves for a few minutes.

I remember the last time I have been in a Fright Zone prison but I would rather not. My heart winces when I think of my former crush yelling at me for helping her. I think deep down she was mostly scared, but when I see what has become of her, I am not so sure, for I also remember her face when she stunned Entrapta. I still believe that not much of her was fine with Zed possessing her. She always has been a free spirit, my wildcat.

* * *

_Months ago, in the Valley of the Lost._

“ _So what do ya think of this Double Trouble?”_

_Catra jumps next to me at the back of our vehicle. The sight of her graceful legs leaping on the seat makes my heart throb._

“ _They seem fun” I reply, but I am not much convinced of it. I just hope this answer is the right one._

_Catra has been acting weird since the portal event. Since Adora has been gone, she became even more moody than before. Sometimes, she is more committed than ever in the Horde’s actions. I guess taking Adora down was seen as a victory, and weakened the Rebellion. I felt like I_ _was_ _back to my first year of service as a Force Captain, except I was in a better position. Serving under Grizzlor was not so bad, but I just… prefered Catra? I do not know, it feels wrong to think about her like this._

_Other times, she just stops in the middle of a sentence, of a job, and she gazes in the empty as if she was very far away from us. One day, I even saw her cry. When I asked her what was wrong, she pushed me away and went sulking in her room; but she would almost always come back, and though she never apologised, she began to behave more gently than she used to. One day, she even thanked me and kissed me on the cheek, which made me blush like never before; but we never talked about it, really, it was just a thing of the moment._

_  
We arrive at the Fright Zone. She heads directly back to her room, but I take a moment to stay behind, and think about it._

_I wanted her. In fact, I had wanted her for a long time. I guess I never stopped wanting her. I do not care if she does questionable things, or if she hurts me, or if she is mad. I can take it, if it means I can be with her. She has her reasons, and who am I to question her? People have hurt her, so of course she can be a little bit bad sometimes; but she has a goal, and when she will reach it, everything is going to be fine._

* * *

How this line of reasoning made me so miserable all this time! Even when I saw the truth about Entrapta, it was hard for me to believe it, just because yes, sometimes, she was nice to me, and my crippled self would always buy it. How many beat ups would I have needed to wake up if Emily did not show me her recordings? If only I had seen it earlier, I could have been able to save Entrapta sooner, and she would not be… the way she is now.

* * *

_I arrive in Bright Moon, panting and sweating, Emily at my side._

_I can still hear all of her words in my ears. Tears run down my cheeks where they mingle with sweat and snot and it all taste like disgusting despair._

“ _You are useless. Just listen to me! Are you an idiot or what? Scorpia! Stop being so… you. Aaaah, get away from me! I don’t need you. You ruin everything! This is the last straw! I hate you!”_

_And then her last words:_

“ _You’re no use here. Just… just go.”_

_As I run away from the Fright Zone I still feel like her voice in inside me. She was right. I should have been better, I should have done better. I was asking too much from her, I should have been serving her only, and be happy with what I got instead of wishing for anything. I was already lucky to have her._

_I remember the time we went to the Crimson Waste. It was all right then. Or when we sneaked to Horror Hall, and I showed her my ancestors. It was so sweet and intimate, the brush of her hand on my pincers, her smile, her eyes closed is the last thing I see as my lips land on hers and we kiss softly. It is a quick moment in time, and I open my eyes a split second before her. We just gaze into each others eyes for an instant, and my heart is racing like an engine ready to burst out of my chest, but nothing. She just sighs, and turn away, and says nothing._

_I blush from shame as I see her gracefully leaps above a pile of stones that fell from the roof to become a ruin, and she heads towards the entrance of the hall. What was I expecting that day? Her attitude did not change, although sometimes, something like this happened. Had she ever at least liked me, let alone love me, or did she just fell for the attention I gave her due to my own feelings? Or maybe I was not good enough for her love._

_And now I am betraying her, running away like that with Emily! If I were a true penitent, I would have accepted my fate of being cast away and worked all my way to win her back. But she is stubborn, I know it too well, and she will never get back at her decision._

“ _Please, I’m begging you. You need to save Entrapta. She’s on Beast Island, she’s helpless!”_

_I am in Bright Moon’s, tied up by the flower princess. A lot of people are here, more than I expected. Shadow Weaver’s most of all. I knew about it, but seeing it with my own eyes is a different thing. My former superior's aura of darkness and power in the middle of this candy box is… odd._

_For the first time, I catch myself wishing Adora was there. I know that she is the reason I will never have Catra; that all the mood swings, the callbacks, the roller-coaster is all because of one name that burnt in the void and will never come back, but still. But she would have listened. She would have understood the danger. Instead, I am stuck here helpless, as no one is ready to listen._

“ _How can we be sure this is not a trap?” says Angella._

“ _And if it’s not?” Glimmer replies._

“ _Catra has already used this trick on us once” Bow objects. “And it ended up in Entrapta being perfectly fine with the Horde.”_

“ _And we overcame it!” Glimmer retorts. “We can outsmart her, I know we can. Let’s go to Beast Island and see what is there.”_

“ _No!” Angella yells. “I will not spare any of you in a dangerous mission, not after what happened!”_

“ _But moooom” Glimmer says, “You’ve been saying the same thing for months now! Please!”_

_At least there is one who is on my side, but the others are not convinced. I try to use the silent gap to pull myself in the conversation again._

“ _Entrapta never wanted to open the portal” I say. “That’s why Catra stunned her and sent her to Beast Island. Please, help her.” I beg._

“ _And if it’s a lie?” sneers the water princess whose name I do not remember._

“ _But you’ve seen the recordings-”_

“ _So? Recordings tricked us before” she replies. “And I am the sea princess, yet I never heard of this Beast Island of yours…”_

“ _Sorry but, I have to agree with Scorpia here” cuts the sneaky voice of Shadow Weaver. “Beast Island is very, very real. And it is a most dangerous place.”_

“ _I have lost too many already” replies Angella. “I am not risking my only child and her friends on this. Entrapta is a skilled princess. I trust she will find a way until we are able to rescue her. Until then…” she pauses to give a good glance at Glimmer, who sighs boldly and walks out, slamming one of the doors behind her. “Please, put the Horde soldier in the prison cell. We will decide of her fate later.”_

_I am desperate. The only relief I find is that the flower princess comes to me, and loosens the ties a little. She looks truly sorry to treat me like this. On the way to the room, she tells me her name: Perfuma._

“ _I am sorry that you did not manage to change their mind” she says when we arrive in the cell, that looks more like a spare room than a proper jail._

“ _They’re right to believe it’s a trap” I sigh. “She has tricked them so many times; she could very well use my innocence to make it believable.”_

“ _For what it’s worth” she whispers, as she picks away some clutter probably left by the previous occupant of the place and flattens the bed mattress, “I believe you.”_

“ _Thank you” I say sadly._

_As she walks away, I notice her ankles dance under her long dress, how sweet they are to move like this. It is another type of grace, not the one of the cat soldier ready to fight, but of a true princess; her hand is not made to hit, but to touch, and without me knowing, it has already planted something in my heart in the hole the other’s claws left._


	7. A ghost in the fog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is somehow a transitional chapter. I am again sorry for not being fast at publishing. I wanted to try something with Swift Wind but I am not entirely satisfied with how it came out, but better is the enemy of good so I decided ultimately to leave it as it is and to move forward in the story. 
> 
> “Primes are not gods. They are liars and murderers.” (Madi, The 100)

**[POV Other Swift Wind]**

The Whispering Woods are incredibly quiet as I step in them, carefully hiding behind a bush. Sometimes people neglecting horses is a blessing: if I do not show myself too much and pretend to graze around like a regular horse, the very few Horde soldiers who notice me do not pay much more attention. Just once, I hear a concerned female soldier ask her mate “Wasn’t this horse the She-Ra steed?” but she was deterred from thinking further about it by the other one who answered something along the lines of “nah, it was bigger and with more colours I think”. For the last part I must say my camouflage was a feat.

I came back to the rebel camp after checking on Razz for a couple of days, so I had no idea what was up there; but I felt something was different. Almost everyone had left, except for a few rebel guards, Angella and Shadow Weaver, the latter I found drinking a velvet red liquid out of a fancy glass. She ignored me, but Angella was happy to see me. I asked her where everyone had left.

“A scout reported a clone attack on the Crystal Castle, so a group of Rebels went to defend it. It was yesterday. I have been waiting for a report about what happened to them all night…”

She sounded worried, and was on the bridge of going there herself to see what happened to the lot of them.

“They’ve been captured, obviously” said a cracked voice behind a tent curtain. Shadow Weaver had probably heard our discussion. “What a waste. If only Adora were a little bit more careful, and did not throw herself into battle like that… letting her emotions distract her…”

  
She was about to rant a little further, but it was not the problem.

“Adora?” I yelled. “Adora is alive? How? I did not feel her coming back! Oh, she must be looking for me! Or she doesn’t want me any more and severed our connection? Oh, but how did she…”

“She’s not our Adora” Shadow Weaver answered. “She said she comes from another dimension, where things turned out… differently.”

“Better, you mean” Angella dryly added.

Shadow Weaver said nothing and took a sip of her drink. That was the moment I suggested I could go scouting the Crystal Castle to check what happened to the warrior team. To be more discreet, Shadow Weaver agreed to magically dye my hairs in darker colours – brown and beige, so lame! So here I am, pretending to be a common steed, when I reach silently the open grounds around the Crystal Castle. It is actually hard to find for something that is so big and visible once you have reached it.

No trace of the Rebels. The grass has been stepped over at multiple spots, and I am good at knowing it was not by cattle or sheep. There is no clear path from one point to another but rather a collection of hazardous moves. If a battle had happened, it had been quick. Closer to the castle, I spot some Horde-designed vehicles parked along the walls, so I take cover and reach the point where the bare space between the forest and the building is the thinnest, to be as close as possible while staying hidden in the bushes. A reinforced lorry is stationed near me, and I see three Horde soldiers get out of it in a green uniform. The first oneis a girl with braids gathered in a ponytail; she walks first and looks like the leader. The two others, a thin blond boy and a huge lizard person, follow her. I cannot see the boy’s face, but I hear the girl yelling at him. They seem in the middle of something, and I hear a loud falling noise just when I arrive at a hear-shot distance.

“For fuck’s sake, Kyle! Can’t you do shit correctly once in a while!”

The boy yelps some apology, and I hear some grunts, probably from the lizard individual. After a long rant in gibberish, the girl speaks again, with a softer tone.

“I know it’s not your fault, but we just cannot afford to make mistakes again. These clones man… They ain’t jokers like Hordak and Catra. And whatever happened to her, I definitely don’t want the same thing to be done to me. Have you seen what happened to Octavia? She said something about her schedule being too harsh, and next thing we know, she disappears and come back all meek and robotic, with a chip in her neck and a brand new personality.”

This was interesting, but it only confirmed our suspicions about what was happening in the Horde for several months now. I needed more, especially about my rebellious friends.

“… still, don’t you want to know what they’re doing in this place?” says so-called Kyle. “Why are they so interested in a bunch of old ruins?”

“No! I don’t want to know!” the girl answers. “The less we know, the less we trouble we get. Now let’s bring these to Lord Hordak.”

There is definitely nothing more to expect from this discussion, I think as I see them close the lorry trunk and get on their seats. I take a turn around the castle, but I don’t see anyone else around, just a couple of instant-built shelters for soldiers from far away, and a tank that left it; they must be guarding the place somehow, but I don’t see anyone on duty. I am almost turning back disappointed when I hear a soft brushing noise in the woods, and jolts my head just in time to see a mysterious caped shape glide along the walls of the castle.

“Eternia” says a male voice.

The door opens.

Intrigued, I follow him on the tip of my hoes and bury myself in the darkness.

* * *

**[POV Adora]**

Zed – Or Catra, I do not know – rises from his sit at the end of dinner. He pulls out a quick gesture, and some clone draws an odd machine from which emanates the most sinister music. He lends me a hand in an awkward gesture.

“Let’s have a dance to help all this food down, don’t we?”

I have barely eaten, and neither did he. He looks more fed with whatever inflating proteins they put in these tubes than proper food anyway. I can almost see the veins popping over some muscles.

“I’m not in the mood to dance” I reply.

I am tired of this sick game he is playing at, turning around me and smiling slyly, like a fly around a pot of honey as Glimmer would say. And these hands, all whitened by the chemicals poured in my lover’s body… My eyes follow them as they playfully stroke my cheek. He is bolder now that he thinks I am powerless, but I still have cards in my sleeve.

“Why is it with you people resisting so hard when you could just…” his hand goes lower. I quickly take it and throw his move away. He takes one step forward. “You think you know what’s good for you. So strong, so _heroic_ , with all these lost women looking in awe at your muscles and your magic. But I know better.”

He keeps smiling, and then suddenly, his hand jolts at my most intimate parts. My quick instinct makes me punch him in the face, but for a split instant, I could feel this disgusting hand grab at this place, and it’s like a trigger for a heat that was waiting all this time in my fists.

BAM!

He yelps from surprise and is pushed away at a safer distance.

“How dare you…” he tries to hit me back, but I protect myself, jump and kick him again.

He is not stunned long though, and quickly puts on a fight. His style has changed: slower but heavier. He stills plays dirty, and these claws are still sharp.

“You think you can resist me?” he yells. “I’ll teach you manners! I know bitches like you, they just need to be tamed!”

He throws a hand at me, but before it hits me, I see him making a strange move. It is so fast I cannot see it properly before dodging to avoid it.

Even without my powers, I am stronger than him, and angry. I strike again, right on the face and he spits a bloody tooth.

Whatever the Catra of this world has done, she is my lover somewhere in my heart, and this man hurt her, killed her and is spoiling her body. How many disgusting things did he do with her before he…

As we fight, other clones appear, and things get confused. I try to beat my way out, but there is just more and more clones; but somehow I can still see him, and his moves while we are separated. I focus on these hands. There is definitely something strange, distracting and annoying that is done with them, this useless extra gesture: the four fingers of his right hand all together and cupped with the thumb opposite to them, like a sort of pincer. He does this at me, but no magic comes out, it is like a sign or a hex.

The clone warriors take his place, and as I am slowly crushed by their numbers, I see him turn his back at me, his left hand still in his back, doing this gesture nervously like a maniac.

“Stop” he screams, as the movement becomes faster. “I said stop. _Stop._ STOP.”

Another clone follows him and hides the rest of it as I am pulled away and reluctantly escorted back to my cell. I wait, but nothing else happens afterwards, and I feel more and more dizzy. I just have time to suspect they used the arrest to inject me with another dose of sleep serum but fall deeply asleep before I know more of it.


	8. The bat in the old mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM VERY SORRY for the VERY LONG gap in publication. I have been through a very hard moment of depression and many mental problems and work issues. I have only two chapters in advance when I publish so I got blocked at the end of this chapter for a while but now I am back on track and hope to keep it going. 
> 
> “Please to meet you,   
> Hope you guessed my name,   
> But what’s puzzling your  
> Is the nature of my game”  
> (Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil)

Sometimes I think being old has its advantages. This Zed kid has no clue about them: he thinks he can come in this world with my brother’s tech, and teach me how to do it; but I obey only Prime, and he will learn.

For so long I have waited for my older brother’s approval. I thought if I managed to rule this world properly, I could come back to where I used to be. How sweet were these days, they seem like an eternity ago, and they are by the standards of this people’s planet. Fifty years I have spent, building the Horde from scratch. And yes, it was imperfect, but did it really deserve so little that my brother could not even come himself? I love Prime but I will not let his little brat of a son take all the credit. He knows nothing of this place, and pretends to conquer it with his extra tech and his help from his daddy and despising my advice. How easy; but I will show him Etheria is not a piece of cake like the ones he was fed with all his life.

This place is amazing for sure. I have never seen the First Ones design myself as I was just a simple soldier when they were ultimately defeated, but memory of his was passed down through the hive mind and I clearly recognise it. Grandiloquent and geometric, with high roofs to reach heavens and scripture to show the genius of their million years civilisation. So sad for they disappeared.

The new tech Zed has brought around to brag with has its utilities though. He managed to pierce the outside door and we can now get inside; I have to admit my bunch of misfits would not have done it. Not that I ever paid much attention to this place; I always believed it was just a stupid ruin. I guess I was… wrong.

If only Entrapta was with me. She knows so many more things about this place, with her love for First Ones tech and every other thing. This mind of hers is so fascinating. All the others seems like they look at things from behind a thick blurred window that makes them so stupid, but her… she looks at the world and just… sees. For the first time with her, I felt like there was something worth in this world to discover.

I must not think about her any more. She left me.

Everyone always does.

Wait. I feel a presence behind me. Or is this because I am doing something risked? I pause for a few seconds, but the discrete sound also does. This place is old, it must be the walls creaking. I turn around, but I do not see anyone or anything, just the old creaked pillars and broken pieces, surely from an earthquake. At the end of the hall there is this other door. I know my brother’s son has been planning on drilling it right away; in fact, workers should swarm the place as soon as they finish opening enough room in the outer wall for the digging machine to go through, so I need to be quick.

It is the strangest feeling, doing clandestine work and hiding from your own army. When I first formed the idea, it straight disgusted me. When it is enemies I have no shame in fooling them, but my own brothers… It felt deeply and utterly wrong. All I wanted was to reconnect to the hive mind and forget, but this curse of mine would always prevent me from doing so.

But then I remembered his arrival on Etherial and it fuelled me with rage.

All I had built was for Prime… and yet, Zed chose her.

* * *

_As she is holding the purple crystal of my heart in her hand, I kneel, humiliated. I should have seen it coming, her betrayal. She was so much like the Prince; always craving for more. More power, more planets, more subjects, it was a never-ending hunger, a black hole that swallowed the entire universe, filling their empty guts. I was too absorbed in my own grief to see it._

_I never took a good look at Catra. She was just there. Of course, she was often a pain in the ass, and I had to maintain discipline once or twice; but I never thought someone who is so willing to compromise their honour to do their boss’ dirty work could have this thing called pride. Shadow Weaver was a loser, but at least she did not have this flaw._

_What leads a minion to stand upon their leader? It was so odd. The leader is there to be respected. What surprised me most is that she did not seem afraid at all of what she just did._

_That is how Catra took power. Officially, I “retired” to let her stand in my shoes. But in reality, I was put in a cupboard lab, and she never missed an opportunity to wave at me what she took: the crystal hanging on her chest, and the laser canon she led the troops with._

_I never thought I could hate her more than then, and yet it was almost affection compared to what it became when he arrived._

_I had almost lost hope of my message arriving to Prime when one morning, the floor of the central station in the Fright Zone started to shake and made me drop the testing tube in my hand (for my lab was my only comfort nowadays and helped to soothe my rage by hoping I could create a mean to come back at her). As it intensified, I heard a few screams in other corridors. I quickly got out, and saw several soldiers who had started to panic. Was this my chance? I did not know, but in doubt, I headed for the throne room, which was at the centre of the station as Horde tradition wants it. It took me a few moments, because the earthquake made it hard to progress smoothly._

_When I arrived in the throne room, the quake had almost stopped. The first thing I saw was Catra, fierce as always, squared by two soldiers in their usual armour and helmet. Not that I would have known who they are; I never had a thing for faces and could not care less about them. It was their boss I was interested with._

_A light had started to form in the middle of the room, and she looked fascinated by it, therefore not paying attention to me; but before I could try anything, the light took a shape I had known all my life, and I was too struck by surprise to think about her any more. The halo became dimmer and rounder as a silhouette emerged through it, followed by a few others. My brothers were behind him though, and it was at least a familiar sight I was glad to get._

_Catra had stood in front of the portal with the laser canon pointed at it, and was now aiming defiantly at the shape. As the light of the vortex slowly faded and disappeared, the room had been filled with about a hundred of my brothers. There were for sure not the only group who arrived that day, as I knew my brother always used a multiple portal to ensure multiple points of arrival to cover maximum ground as early as possible. Yet the group looked remarkably small compared to what I remembered of my service._

_Seeing that even with the canon she had no chance of taking them all off, Catra lowered it. She had surely understood who they were, and I saw the rarest yet not unseen expression on her face: utmost fear._

_When he started to speak, the voice immediately struck me as a little different, like someone trying to imitate our voice without entirely managing to do so. My memories be cursed if this was Prime who looks around the room, although he almost looks like him. My almighty brother had been through many bodies by the time I was his second in command, but each of them was held in the deepest care and respect. He would not see fit to alter it in any way other than bare necessities of service. This one did not even sport the usual locks that were implemented to Prime’s body at the ceremony of Renewal, and I could not believe in a circumstance that would push him to avoid this ritual._

“ _Who are you?” Catra asks with a suspicious voice, and I would have dared the same question if I could get out of the shadows._

“ _Hello, first, don’t you think?” smirks the mysterious head brother. His smile is strange on such a face; if he were a simple general, how could he allow himself such a thing as a facial expression?_

“ _Hello” the cat replies with her usual dryness. “Who are you?”_

“ _My name is Zed, Prince of the Horde, First and only son of my revered father Horde Prime. I reckon one of my father’s brothers has sent a distress call from this dimension, so I was sent to take a look.”_

_Oh no. Not him._

* * *

The trail of my recollection is interrupted by another noise. I swiftly turn around, only to face the oddest vision: the horse.

Now I did not pay a lot of attention to the Rebellion members, but I can recollect now that in She-Ra times, she was using a horse. But how a mere vehicle could end up in here… or even…

“What are you doing in this temple?” it asks.

Everything about it is so un-frightening, so alien, so princessy that I cannot help but be puzzled by the inquisitive tone of this voice

“Back out, inferior creature” I hiss. If all, it raises an eyebrow that manages to piss me off even more. “You have nothing to do here!”

“I could say the same to you” he retorts, not at all thrown away by the laser gun I point at its face. “This is a First One…”

Suddenly, a metallic noise makes us both jump. There is a few seconds of tense silence, and then everything is quiet again. Probably just a filthy Etherian beast wandering around.

“This is a First Ones temple for She-Ra”, he whispers. “The Horde should really not be there.”

“You shouldn’t be there, stupid creature! This is a field of research for the Horde now, what’s a rebel member doing in here?”

“Then why didn’t you arrest me yet?!” he replies.

Touché. I cannot inform a rebel of what I am doing, rebels cannot be trusted… Yet I cannot do anything with this one or it will attract suspicion.

“I see” he smiles. “You too are doing something illegal. Interesting…”

Another noise interrupts us again. It is louder and seems to get closer, and to top it all, the dim white light is suddenly breached by a bright red that makes me wince.

Security has been breached. Intruder detected, says a voice that is definitely not from Horde records but still sounds ominous all the same. A shape jumps in front of me, with too many crimson eyes and a doomsday cry.

“Oh” says the horse. “I see you guys did not hear about the security protocol.”

* * *

_Catra opens her mouth, ready to say something, but thinks better and closed it._

_He continues:_

“ _What I see here is very unusual indeed. You are definitely not a brother of Prime, but yet this place looks like it was built by our Empire. I would not dare to imagine you did such a thing as overpower our lost brother, or did you? For such a thing would make us enemies, don’t you think?”_

_I can almost see my lieutenant’s neurological system grin inside her skull. I hesitate. There would be no greater pleasure for me than to see her be defeated but at the same time that would make me look weak._

_I step forward, dare I to say reluctantly. It has been a while since I took my diplomatic voice and I have to admitt I am not the best at it. Diplomacy is usually for fools… except with this abomination._

“ _My dear brother, I am very glad to meet you here. I see you have already met my assistant, Catra.”_

_She looks at me with an expression that I have learnt to be Etherian’s surprise, not yet realising I am, among all things, saving her life._


End file.
